Reaction type water sprinkler



June 19. 1956 A, SA'K ET AL 2,751,251

REACTION TYPE WATER SPRINKLER Filed Jan. 22, 1954 HEIHIIIIIIHH INVENTORS Alexa/rdemj. Salt, Edmund 8. Salt and Henry 4/. Oshqyw ATTORNEYS United States Patent REACTION TYPE WATER SPRINKLER Alexander J. Sak and Edmund S. Sak, Chicago, and Henry I. Ostrega, Cicero, Ill.

Application January 22,1954, Serial No. 405,526

2 Claims. (Cl. 299-69) This invention relates to water sprinklers, and particularly to lawn sprinklers of the type wherein reaction forces from jet delivery means cause rotation of the sprinkler head. The improvement herein resides in the particular arrangement of the jet delivery means for support and adjustment on the rotary head to control the spread of the sprinkler, that is, the area covered thereby.

In brief, the sprinkler comprises a more or less conventional base and upright pipe adapted to be connected to a source of water pressure, a. rotary head pivotally mounted on the upright pipe and tothe interior of which water is delivered, and jet delivery means adjustably mounted on the head. The jet delivery means are arranged to direct jets of water generally tangentially of the axis of rotation of the head to thereby cause the head to rotate, in the well known. manner. The jet delivery means consists generally of tubes having; closedouter ends and fixedly mounted in rotary closures on the sprinkler head. The tubes extend oblique. to the rotary axis of the head and also. oblique to a second axis about which the closures are rotatably adjustable on the sprinkler head. The arrangement permits a wide range of adjustment whereby the sprinkler may be adjusted to cover large or small areas 01'- to spray without rotation.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a water sprinkler that is simple in construction yet adjustable tosprinkle large or small areas anditovarythe rate of rotation.

Another object of the invention is to provide an adjustable rotary sprinkler wherein the adjustable parts can be readily located in the desired position of adjustment.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a fully adjustable rotary sprinkler having a minimum number of moving parts.

A further object ofthe invention is to provide an adjustable rotary water sprinkler that is simple inconstruction, economical to produce, yet rugged and durable.

Further objects and advantages will become apparent to those skilled in the art as the description proceeds in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional View through a sprinkler embodying the present invention but with certain parts shown in elevation;

Fig 2 is a. top. plan view of the sprinkler of Fig. 1 but drawn on a. somewhat reduced scale; and

Fig. 3 is a. fragmentary partial sectional view of arnojdification of the sprinkler shown in Figs. I and The sprinkler may comprise an upright pipe or conduit 2 having a lateral'extension 4 integrally formed therewith and having a suitable fitting 6 in the end thereof "by which the upright 2 may be connected to the usual garden hose or other source of water under pressure. As shown in Fig. l, the upright 2 is formed integrally with a base 8 comprising an outer ring portion 10 and spaced spokes 12 extending from the ring 10 to the upright 2.

The upper end of the upright conduit 2 is provided 2,751,251 Patented June 19, 1956 with an enlarged counterbore 14 in which an anti-friction sleeve bearing 16 is positioned. A hollow stem 18 is rotatably received within the bore of the sleeve bearing 16 and is provided with an enlarged head or flange 20 underlying the lowermost end of sleeve bearing 16. A packing washer 22, of fiber or the like, bears against the lowermost end of sleeve bearing 16 and the upper surface of flange 20. The stem 18 extends upwardly through the sleeve bearing 16 and is threaded at its uppermost end 24 and is threadedly received within a suitable opening in a rotary head member 26 to form therewith a rotary unit. The head 26 is thus supported for rotation about vertical axis. AA fixed relative to the upright conduit 2. During operation of the sprinkler, water pressure within the conduit 2 holds the flange 20. of stem 18 in its upper position and washer 22 acts as a seal to prevent leakage ofwater between the stem 18 and sleeve bearing 16. and also acts as a thrust bearing, for the rotary unit.

The rotary head 26 is in the form of a short hollow cylinder having rabbeted end surfaces 28 and 30. C10- sure members 32 and 34 are formed with annular surfaces complementary to the rabbeted end surfaces of the' rotary head and engage the ends of the cylindrical head 26. in sea-ling relation thereto but being free to rotate about the axis BB' of the cylindrical rotary head. Fiber gaskets 35 may be used as a seal between the rotary head 26 and closure members 32 and 34, fitting over the: end surfaces 30 and against face 28. The rabbeted portions of the head 26 constitute: pivot guides for the closures 32.

and 34. A suitable tie bolt 36 extends through the hollow cylindrical head. 26 and. through the closures 32 and 34. The bolt136 is provided with a head 38 on one end and is threaded at its other end to receive a. cap nut 40. The tie bolt 36 must. be rotatable relative to at least one of the closures 32 or 34' and may rotatably pass through both closures. Likewise, bolt 36 may be in the form of a stud having threads at both ends and 38 could be 'a 3 second cap nut instead of an integral head on the boltQf' The bolt 36 thus holds the closures 32 and 34 on the through into communication with the interior of they hollow cylindrical head 26. Each of the tubes 42 and 44 is closed at its outermost end by a suitable plug 48- or other means. Each of the tubes 42 and 44 is further provided with a series of laterally directed openingso50 When the closures 32 and through. a side wall thereof. 34 are in. the position shown in Fig. 1 with their respective tubes: directed downwardly, the openings 50 in the two tubes point in opposite directions, respectively; that is, the openings 50 in the right hand tube 42 are directed away from the viewer, whereas the; openings 50 in the left hand tube 44' are directed toward the viewer. The tubes 42 and 44 are so mounted in closures 32 andv 34 that they extend at a. fixed oblique angle to the axis BB and at a fixed oblique. angle to a plane containing ax-is A-A, which. plane is perpendicular to the axis B-'B- Itwillbe readily evident thatv water pressurev in upright conduit 2 will cause flow of water into the head 26 and outwardly in tubes 42. and 44 where it will be discharged in a plurality of jets in a direction laterally of the tubes and tangentially of the axis A--A. Since the jets on opposite sides of the axis A-A are directed in opposite.

.wardly and there is no rotary movement.

directions, a force couple is produced which causes the head 26 to rotate rapidly about axis A-A.

The tie bolt 36 and cap nut 40 may be so arranged and dimensioned that, when the cap nut is tight, the closures can be rotated about the axis B-B but will be frictionally held in any position of adjustment. Thus, the closures may be adjusted simply by manually setting the tubes 42 and 44 in the desired position. However, if desired, the parts may be so constructed that when the cap nut 40 is tightened to the limit of its movement, the closures 32 and 34 are rigidly clamped against the ends of the cylindrical head 26. With such an arrangement, it is necessary to loosen the cap nut 40 to effect adjustment of the sprinkler whereupon the nut may be again tightened and the parts fixedly held in adjusted position without danger of inadvertent maladjustment. If desired, the cap nut 40 may be replaced by a thumb nut or other device whereby it may be loosened without the necessity of employing a wrench or similar tool.

- With the tubes 42 and 44 in the position of adjustment shown in Fig. 1, the jets are so directed that the maximum force couple is produced and the head 26 will rotate at its maximum speed. If, however, the closure 32 and 'tube 42 are rotated about axis B-B in a counterclockwise direction (as viewed from the right of Fig. 1) through an angle less than 90 and the closure 34 and tube 44 are rotated in the opposite direction through the same angle, it will be apparent that the jets issuing from the openings 50 will be directed upwardly and outwardly and there will be a smaller component of reaction forces tending to cause rotation of the head 26 but the jets will be elevated in a manner to project their streams a greater distance outwardly. If the parts are adjusted to the 'position' shown in Fig. 2, the jets are all directed upwardly and there will be no component of force tangent to axis A-A and the head will merely direct a spray upwardly without rotating.

Figs. 1 and 2 also show, by dotted lines, other positions of adjustment. For instance, from the positions shown by solid line in Fig. 1, the heads and closures may be rotated in a direction opposite to that previously described, in which case the jets will be directed downwardly from the horizontal while still producing rotation of the head 26 and the area covered by the sprinkler will be reduced. Such adjustment may be continued until -the tubes reach the position shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2, at which time the openings are all directed down- If the tubes are adjusted to the position shown by dotted lines in .Fig. 1, the same speed of rotation will be produced as is produced with the parts shown in solid line in that figure but the jets will be at a greater elevation and a somewhat larger area will be covered. Furthermore, closure 32 and tube 42 may be left in the position shown in Fig. 1 and closure 34 and tube 44 adjusted to the dotted line position shown at the left of Fig. 1, in which case all jets are directed laterally of the sprinkler but the reaction forces of the jets issuing from tube 44 are exactly balanced by reaction forces on tube 42 and the sprinkler merely directs all jets in one direction without rotating.

Clearly, many other positions of adjustment are possible, each producing a modified form of spray pattern.

In the modification shown in Fig. 3, parts bearing the same reference numerals are identical to correspondingly numbered parts of Figs. Land 2. In this modification,

I however, the closure members 32' and 34' are formed integrally with the tubes 42 and 44'.

The bolt 36 of Fig. 1 is not employed with this modification but the closures are held in assembled relation to the head 26 by a helical tension spring 60 extending axially through cylindrical head 26 and acting on the closures 32' and 34 to hold them respectively in sealing engagement with the head 26. Bolts 62 extend rotatably through the closures 32' and 34' substantially in alignment with the axis of head 26 and the threaded inner ends of the bolts 62 threadedly engage the end turns or convolutions of tension spring 60. The tension spring 60 may be of such dimensions that the threads of bolts 62 readily engage therewith or the end convolutions of the spring may be of lesserdiameter than the main portion of the spring, if desired. In this modification the closures 32' and 34' may be manually adjusted in rotation about the axis of head 26 and will thereupon be frictionally held, by spring 60, in the desired position of adjustment. Thus, it is not necessary to employ a tool or wrench of any kind to effect adjustment or to hold the parts in adjusted position. Relative rotation between either or both of the bolts 62 and the spring 60 will efiect adjustment of the tension in the spring and, therefore, the force with which closures 32 and 34 are held in the position shown. After initial adjustment of the tension of the spring to the desired value, no further adjustments need be made and the closures may be thereafter selectively rotated to any desired position and will be held at those positions.

In either the modification of Fig. 1 or that of Fig. 3, the outer circumference of the head 26 may be provided with suitable scale indicia (not shown) and the closures 32 and 34 or 32' and 34 may be provided with suitable index marks whereby the sprinkler may be adjusted in a described manner and the scale referred to could be so calibrated as to indicate the approximate area covered by the spray from the sprinkler at that particlar adjustment.

While specific embodiments of the invention have been shown and described herein, such are merely illustrative and the invention is not limited thereto. The invention contemplates all other embodiments falling fairly within the scope of the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A sprinkler comprising; a hollow open-ended cylindrical head mounted for rotation about an axis normal to the axis of said cylinder, a separate closure for each end of said cylinder, each of said closures abutting an annular surface at its end of said cylinder in sealing relation therewith and being mounted thereon for independentrotation about the axis of said cylinder, a jet delivery tube extending outwardly from each closure oblique to the axis of said cylinder and being in communication with the hollow interior of said head, and a tension spring means extending axially through said head and engaging said closures to frictionally hold said closures in any position of adjustment about the axis of said cylinder.

2. A sprinkler as defined in claim 1, wherein said spring means comprise a helical tension spring, the end .turns of said spring threadedly engaging the threads of bolts extending rotatably through said closures whereby the tension of said spring may be adjusted.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

